BLEACHERS BREW EST. MAY 2006

Someone asked me how my blog and newspaper column came to be titled "Bleachers Brew". It's like this, it's an amalgam of sorts of two things: The bleachers area in the stadium/arena where I used to sit when I would watch baseball, football, and basketball games and Miles Davis' great jazz album Bitches Brew. That's how it got culled together. I originally planned on calling it "The View from the Big Chair" that is a nod to Tears For Fear's second album, Songs from the Big Chair. So there.

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

The football Sharifa
Mae Salip Jamuh is holding up is the One World Futbol, the ultra-durable ball
that will work anywhere in the world even in the roughest of landscapes.

It says a lot not only about the power of the game of
football but also the young girl’s life.

Salip Jamuh is from Panglima
Estino in Sulu. Years ago, if one described Sulu as “the Wild West” was a
massive understatement. More appropriately, it was one of the most dangerous
places on earth. Gunfire, explosions, the screams of the despondent, the
injured and the dying were so common that Sharifa became inured to the sounds.
“That kind of life was normal for us,” the 16-year old lass succinctly put.

It was so normal that Sharifa or her playmates never ducked for
cover. Instead, they ran towards the sounds of battle. “There was a certain
thrill to the danger,” she confessed.

Eventually, the danger ratcheted up by several levels.

The 46-year old Moro Insurgency isn’t simply a late 20th
century conflict from what has been an eons-old war between Christians and
Muslims. In fact, in Mindanao, it also gets more personal as the blood feuds
between rival clans or tribes of Muslim gets even more personal.

Lt. Ryan Gandeza, a Philippine Marine assigned to the area who
later became a guardian for Sharifa, certified that in Mindanao one fights
several fronts. “You have the MNLF, the MILF, Abu Sayyaf, and even rogue
elements of the aforementioned,” clarified the soldier.

Salip Jamuh’s life changed when she found herself actively
participating in a game of football. When Gandeza allowed her to join, he
looked to the girl’s parents if there was any objection.

The boys didn’t go easy on Sharifa. She was tackled and knocked
around some. But pretty soon it became evident that the girl with the hajib was
the best player on the pitch. And the soldiers of the 3rd Marine
Battalion based at the Domingo Deluana Barracks in Barangay Sanga Sanga in
Bongao, Sulu took notice of Salip Jamuh’s talent that they – for all their
meager pay -- all chipped in for her high school education at Western Mindanao
State University in Zamboanga.

Zamboanga was an eye opener for someone whose only world was the
one immediately within her vicinity. “Ang daming tao,” she marveled. “Ang dami
ko nakikita. Ibang experience talaga.”

If “Asia’s Latin City” – as Zamboanga is known by – was a whole new
world for Salip Jamuh, Manila was like being in another planet.

In the nation’s capital as a Football for Peace scholar to the
University of Santo Tomas where she now plays for its women’s football team,
Sharifa was pleasantly surprised to see the Quiapo area with its eclectic mix
of Chinese culture as well as Christian and Islamic places of worship. “People
can get along,” she thought.

And boy, were there malls! Something every young kid can relate to.

When she was in Sulu, Lt. Ryan Gandeza and his Marines would tutor
Sharifa who did pretty well in all her subjects save for math. “I hate math,”
she proclaimed.

With her freshman year in UST ending, Gandeza caught up with his
pupil and asked about her math. “Pasado,” she smiled. Gandeza raised his eyes
in amazement. “Nice! Pero…”

“Bagsak ako sa Theology,” conceded Sharifa who admitted to being
disinterested in studying another religion. The downside of her getting a
failing grade in the subject is that it put her scholarship – not to mention
her slot on the football team – in jeopardy. One needs to pass their subjects
to be able to play.

There’s an awkward moment of silence between the two before the
officer offered some piece of advice. “Take it as if you are studying a new
culture… and you are,” he advised. “You have to promise me you will do it.”

The young Muslim girl nodded although Gandeza wasn’t convinced. Clearly,
there is a lot of work that needs to be done.

When Salip Jamuh graduates from her Physical Education course, she
plans to return to Sulu to teach the young of the value of a sound mind in a
sound body. She hopes to communicate her life changing experiences and maybe in
turn change some lives and convince them that change doesn’t come through
violence and taking up arms. She has relatives who have taken up arms as
insurgents. Yet they are nothing short of amazed at her exploits. Even meeting
Phil Younghusband!

For a young Muslim girl from the south who grew up with violence as
a daily occurrence, she abhors it now. She cannot even stand the sight of it.

“Peace… it is possible,” the young girl proclaimed. “Change isn’t
easy. But if we work together we can achieve a lot.”

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What I do for a living?

I also write regularly for Business Mirror; philstar.com; abs-cbnnews.com, and rappler.com.

I am also currently the media officer for the Filoil Flying V Hanes Premier Cup, the National Basketball Training Center, and the Flying V Davao Thunders.

I do PR consultancy for a variety of clients that I do not want to divulge.

I used to teach journalism at the Ateneo de Manila University hand have given lectures about journalism, new media, marketing, and public relations at the Ateneo, UP Diliman, UST, San Beda, Immaculate Conception Academy, Miriam College, Mindanao State University, FIFA seminars, and a few other schools and organizations.

I used to write for the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines Free Press, and Maxim Philippines. I have also contributed to FHM, Men's Health, Tower Sports NBA, Rebound, and a few other sports, interior design, and lifestyle magazines as well. Most recently, I was the editor-in-chief of PBA Life, the Official Lifestyle Magazine of the Philippine Basketball Association as well as Season 40 edition of Hardcourt, the season-in-review.

My blog, Bleachers' Brew, serves as a hub for many of my writings (but not all as there are some that are exclusive).

When I have free time, I listen to my collection of over 5,000 CDs, read, watch DVDs, or walk my dog around the subdivision.